The crossing of Broadway at 55th Street in Elmwood Park, or as one pedestrian calls it, ‘the walk of death.’ Tariq Zehawi / Staff Photographer

The heart-stopping game of chicken that rail commuters have been playing for more than a decade as they walk across Route 4 in Elmwood Park, near the Fair Lawn border, appears to finally be nearing its end.

Instead of praying cars will stop for blinking strobe signals at East 55th Street, walkers will soon be aided as they cross the busy highway — also known as Broadway — with the kind of traffic-control device that local officials have been requesting all along: a traffic light.

“The discussion over this issue has gone on long enough,” explained New Jersey Transportation Commissioner Jamie Fox, who ordered installation of the light at a crowded meeting early this month with state Department of Transportation engineers, legislators, local businessmen and politicians from both boroughs.